Riding lawn mowers are well known in the turf care industry for performing a turf maintenance operation, namely for cutting grass. Such lawn mowers carry one or more suitable grass cutting units. The grass cutting units are vertically movable between a lowered grass cutting position and a raised transport position. The grass cutting units are also capable of selective operation, namely they can be started and stopped, at the discretion of the operator.
Electronic controllers are commonly used on such lawn mowers to perform various functions. These functions include receiving data from various sensors installed on the mower to monitor and track the operational condition of various components on the mower. If certain components malfunction, the controller will often disable their continued operation and store error codes reporting the fault. Such error codes can later be retrieved by a technician seeking to diagnose and repair the component.
In addition, the electronic controller often serves as the control interface between various manually operated controls on the mower and the components that are operated by these controls. For example, the mower typically includes controls for lifting and lowering the cutting units and for starting and stopping the cutting units. The movement of such controls is sensed and reported to the controller and the controller then sends corresponding commands to the cutting units to effect the desired action. If the cutting units are to be stopped, the controller will send a signal to a valve or switch to stop the flow of power to the cutting units.
In keeping with the disparate functions served by the controller, the controller embodies sophisticated microprocessor based technology incorporated on a printed circuit board. Such a circuit board is placed within an outer housing and a potting compound is often injected into the housing to seal the circuit board in a waterproof manner. Conventional pin type connectors having female and male halves are used to connect the controller to the various sensors and components on the mower. Such connectors are typically separate from the controller and the sensors and components and are connected thereto by wiring harnesses.
While known electronic controllers of this type are effective, they are quite costly. They require an appropriate printed circuit board that is potted into a surrounding outer housing. A first wiring harness is connected to leads on the printed circuit board and then to one of the connector halves to electronically join the circuit board to the connector half. The other connector half has to be joined to the sensors and/or components by a second wiring harness. The need for two such harnesses and the need to join the first wiring harness to the printed circuit board increases the cost and complexity of the controller.
Finally, with microprocessor based technology of this type, it is possible to monitor numerous components and to track and record large amounts of information. However, to date, such controllers as used on outdoor power equipment units such as mowers do not monitor, track and record much more than rudimentary information. Thus, there is a need in the art for an electronic controller for on outdoor power equipment unit that is less complex and costly and that will monitor, track and record a large number of operational conditions.